MANILA, Philippines – A southern Philippine mayor captured by guerrillas this week will be tried for alleged murder and other crimes, the communist rebels said Thursday.
A New People's Army guerrilla band seized Roberto Luna, two soldiers and two police officers serving as his security detail, early Wednesday in Compostela Valley province, the rebels and police said.
Luna is being tried for the 2001 killing of a former Lingig mayor, the 2007 killing of two men from the same town and graft in a government waterways project, said regional rebel spokesman Simon Santiago in a statement on a rebel website.
Luna is the current mayor of Lingig township in Agusan del Sur. His term ends in June, and he is running for vice mayor in May 10 elections.
Government prosecutors have dismissed all criminal charges against Luna related to the killings, but alleged graft in the waterways project is still being investigated.
He was in one of two vehicles flagged down by about 30 guerrillas near the boundary of Agusan del Sur and Compostela Valley provinces, police said. They said security forces have been deployed to rescue the mayor and his bodyguards.
Rebels usually summarily execute people they find to have committed "crimes against the people," "blood deaths" or those involved in killings.
Talks to end the 41-year-old communist insurgency have been stalled since 2004 and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the military to crush the rebels by the time she steps down in June.
AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATING ALLEGED MURDER OF NOTORIOUS DRUG-CARTEL LEADER RAMON ARELLANO FELIX.: An article from: SourceMex Economic News & Analysis on Mexico
